26 - Nico
N ICO PUSHED OUT OF THE building doors, arm around Sam. They were both soaked through and it was cold out, but Sam was warm. Being together was warm.
Traffic was starting to move again, and they headed back up to Times Square to meet with the others.
When they got there, the news ticker Nico had seen earlier had a new message:
#ALIENGATE P LOT F OILED . S USPECTS S TILL AT L ARGE .
They passed competing news broadcasts on the LED screens of Times Square, catching just snippets:
“It’s being compared to the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds , which also caused widespread pandemonium—”
“Seventeen different groups, from as many nations, have claimed responsibility for orchestrating the false alien invasion, but the true perpetrators remain unknown and at large—”
“In a triumph for US intelligence agencies, one of the largest globally coordinated pranks ever was brought to a halt just six days after it began—”
Up ahead they could see Frida and Bec, holding hands, and Byron and Peter. Sam waved, and the two of them started running to their friends.
As everyone was hugging and talking at the same time, Nico had this amazing feeling: Like the world was settling back to normal. And it was because of him. Them . Together, they’d done this.
He felt proud. And safe. He looked at their animated, happy faces: Frida, Bec, Byron, Peter, and Sam. His Sam. These were his people. Godeane too.
And more than that, Nico realized: this was his family.
Sam
1922 Staten Island NY
The group of them were gathered in the Mehudar lobby sitting area.
He and Nico had changed to dry clothes, and Nico was in the green upholstered lounge chair that matched Sam’s own.
Bec and Frida were snuggled together on the love seat, Ari and Byron leaned over a bee drone schematic at the coffee table, and Peter perched on the sofa edge closest to Nico.
“I wasn’t worried. I knew it wasn’t aliens all along,” Peter boasted, sparking good-natured laughter. Peter hid his face behind his hand until he couldn’t take it anymore and joined in with his own giggles.
“But then she recognized Frida!” Bec was saying.
“Crank Shaft, actually,” Frida corrected.
“Crank Shaft,” Bec adjusted, “and like a total fan gave us the VIP treatment. And with Byron’s help we patched all the broadcasts together!”
Frida put an arm around Bec. “Just women-loving-women helping other women-loving women.”
“Ooh,” Ari joked, “you’re like a lesbian cabal.”
Sam snorted a laugh.
“Want to be a cabal with me, my celebrity girlfriend?” Bec asked Frida.
The answer was a kiss.
Girlfriends? Sam thought that was fast. Then again, Nico was his husband , so he was in no position to judge how fast Frida’s relationship was going.
“What’s a cabal?” Peter asked.
“That’s why you need to stay in school,” Nico told him.
Sam raised an eyebrow at Nico. If he couldn’t convince Nico to finish high school, maybe he could at least convince him to get his GED, if only to show Peter it was important. Ari had done it last year to get their parents off their back.
“It’s like a secret group,” Nico answered. “That has power.”
“So like us,” Peter said.
“Kind of,” Sam agreed. “The Freedom Party.”
Nico looked around the circle of them and put his fist out over the table. “The Freedom Party.”
Each of them put a hand in the center to bump fists in a toast of strength. And then they all said it together: “The Freedom Party.”
Nico’s new phone flashed with a call. Ari had given them all “clean” satellite phones.
“Godeane,” he told Sam, and walked a bit away from the others before he accepted it.
Nico
1924
“Darling boy!” Godeane’s voice was warm.
“You’re safe!” Nico said, surprised at his relief. He hadn’t really thought she was in danger, but not knowing had been hard.
“Worst forty-seven hours of my life. I should never have let them stash me away when I could have been of use out here in the real world! Lucky we had you on the case.”
Nico didn’t know what to say to that. “Thanks for believing in me.”
On the other side of the call, Nico heard someone say, “The president’s ready for you, ma’am.”
“That’s for me,” Godeane said. “Come see me. And bring that husband of yours.”
When Nico pocketed the phone Ari was standing just a few feet away by the check-in desk, like they had been waiting for him to finish his call before saying something.
Nico looked at them. “Am I going to be able to trust you?”
Ari’s face was unreadable. “I want him happy.”
Nico had figured the math of this out. “But you think he’d be happier with you.” It wasn’t a question.
He could see Ari was surprised, and then a wistful look washed over their face. “No,” Ari said. “He wants you.”
Nico tried to not react like Yeah, I won! but it was a struggle.
Ari adjusted their tiny hat model of the planet Mars that didn’t need adjusting. “And I want to keep him as my best friend. So I’m on board.”
“Really?” Nico wasn’t sure he could believe that.
“Really,” Ari said. “How can I prove it to you?”
“How about just knowing you’re okay with us,” Nico said. “Okay with me.”
Ari reached out and clasped Nico’s hands in theirs. When their eyes met, Nico could see Ari was fighting back tears. “You keep our boy happy. Treat him well. And you and me? We’re golden.”
“Deal,” Nico agreed.
With a bittersweet look, Ari walked away.
Nico stood there for a long moment, feeling like he’d just made another wedding vow to Sam. And Sam didn’t even know it.
Sam
One Good Thing
I guess we did save the world—from itself.
Doesn’t sound like the authorities have caught K & N.O. Hopefully they’re okay.
Weird that if you asked me a week ago I was so sure what made a villain, a bad guy, an enemy, and now I’m not—
So sure, that is.
My actual journal’s back home, assuming the 13th floor jerks didn’t grab it when they raided the place. Gosh, that thought’s terrible.
No, even if they were looking for it, it’s pretty well hidden. Regular people don’t really have secret compartments. That’s more Bond and his villains. Not that I’m Bond—or a villain! But I guess I’m not just a “regular” person either…
Anyway, I’m writing this on my new phone Ari gave me—this one’s supposed to be untrackable and untappable.
A little nervous to go home. Find out about Raul. God, I hope he’s all right. If he isn’t, and I let them go…
Don’t catastrophize, Solomon.
I’ll try to call Dad and Mom tomorrow. Savta too. Catch up. Though I’m not sure how much I should tell them. Secrets suck. But I guess we do it to keep the people we care about safe.
I’m glad I don’t have any more secrets with Nico.
But he still hasn’t said “I love you” to me in ages.
Maybe I should stop saying it to him.
Maybe it’s too much to hope for.
Maybe I should just settle for the good I have and not keep wanting things to be perfect
“Hey, you’re over here all by yourself?” Nico had found Sam in the lobby’s third window seat, the one tucked into a corner behind one of Savta’s four-foot-tall potted gardenias. The sweet and peppery and almost creamy coconut-like smell of the white blossoms felt like the hug he’d needed.
“Just writing some stuff down. It helps me process,” Sam said, knowing that was so not Bond of him, but not sure he cared anymore. It did help.
Nico put up a hand and started to walk away. “I’ll let you be.”
“No,” Sam said, tucking his legs under him and patting the newly freed cushion space. “I’d like the company.”
Nico sat down, their legs just an inch apart. They both just sat there, and the silence between them felt okay to Sam.
Not great, but okay.
“Should we go home?” Nico asked him.
“Yeah, you sexy guy,” Sam said.
“Husband!” Nico corrected. “I believe that’s ‘sexy husband.’”
Sam couldn’t help the smile on his lips. “Let’s go home, sexy husband.”
“Right back atcha,” Nico said, weaving his fingers in between Sam’s. And Sam noticed Nico was wearing his wedding ring. They both were.
Nico
2034 Upper East Side Manhattan NY
“Raul!” Sam raced across the lobby to hug the doorman. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Nico hung back. Sam was so good with people and cared about everyone. Nico wished he could figure out how to be a little easier with people himself. A little warmer. Maybe more time with Sam would warm him up.
“They just knocked me out, Mr. Solomon,” Raul said. “There was a moment there, though, when I thought I was a goner for sure.”
“Yeah,” Sam said. And Nico could see the flash of pain on Sam’s face as he remembered that moment when he’d been sure Raul was dead. And he’d blamed himself.
“Mr. Hall,” Raul saw Nico. “Welcome home.”
“Thanks,” Nico said, but didn’t know what to say after that. I’m glad you’re not dead after all?
Sam had already said they were happy Raul was okay.
So Nico just left it at Thanks .
On the elevator, Nico wouldn’t let Sam press 42 and instead took them up to the roof.
“Where are we going? We’ll get in trouble for skinny dipping,” Sam said as they headed to the pool in its glass greenhouse.
“Trust me,” Nico said, but filed away the idea of skinny dipping for another time. He led them past the pool, exiting onto the roof deck, where just yesterday they’d rappelled down from that helicopter. The nearly full moon was pretty high in the sky.
Nico walked them to the spot farthest from the building lights and held both of Sam’s hands in his own. It reminded him of when they’d said their wedding vows.
“In Hawaii, the observatory was so high, and something about there being less atmosphere to blur things, it made the stars amazing. Like you could see us, on our planet, spinning around the sun, dancing on our spiral in the galaxy. With all these other galaxies too.”
A smile played on Sam’s lips. “That’s almost poetry.”
It made Nico self-conscious, but he wanted to follow through on this idea. “Now that we know it’s all good up there, I thought we could take a minute and enjoy it. The stars. Together.”
“I like that.” Sam turned and snuggled back against Nico, and they both looked up.
Even through all their winter clothes Nico could feel Sam breathing against him. He held him close.
“Maybe we need to let our eyes adjust?” Sam said.
Nico waited, but nothing much changed. They could barely see any stars at all. Even looking away from the moon, the city was so bright, it drowned out everything incredible up there. “Oh, man, that didn’t work, did it?”
Sam laughed, but Nico could tell it wasn’t at him. It was kind. “It’s just something for the future then,” Sam said, turning to him.
“Yeah. It will be fun to share it with you some day,” Nico agreed.
Sam’s eyes glinted like stars just for Nico. “How about we go home now?”
“I like the sound of that.”
After Sam unlocked the door, they stepped over the three-by-two-foot piece of drywall the thirteenth floor strike team had cut out. Nico leaned it back against the wall and they walked around the apartment, on edge.
To Nico’s eyes, besides the hole cut by the front door, it all looked normal. Everything super fancy, but normal.
“You see anything missing or weird?” Nico asked.
“No,” Sam answered. “I’ll ask Ari to scan it for any surveillance tech later.”
“Let’s cover that hole.” Nico patted the Japanese step cabinet with the gold lacquer cranes. “On three.”
It was heavier than it looked, but together they lifted it and carried it over to block the hole.
“Whew.” Sam sat on the second step of the cabinet and leaned back to stare all sexy at Nico. He popped his eyebrows. “You know what I’m thinking now that we have privacy?”
Nico pulled Sam up and led him to their bedroom. “You have some excellent ideas.”
They got sweaty in the best way.
After, as they caught their breath, Sam turned on his pillow to face Nico. “So, Eliot?” Sam asked. “Why didn’t you sleep with him? He is hot.”
Nico shrugged. “Because it would have been just sex.”
“We just had sex,” Sam pointed out.
Nico half-smiled, tracing a line down Sam’s neck over and then under his Adam’s apple. “That wasn’t just sex. It was more.”
“What?” Sam sat up. “What was it to you?”
Nico sat up too. Were they having a fight?
Nico spun his wedding ring around and around on his finger. They were both naked under the sheets. He’d taken everything else off, but not this. Not anymore.
Sam groaned in frustration, and Nico knew he had to say something. He didn’t want Sam unhappy. That was the last thing he wanted. “It isn’t enough to show you? I keep trying to show you.”
Sam bit his lip. “I need to hear it, sometimes. Don’t you like to hear it?”
Nico really listened. Let it sink it. He hadn’t heard those words for so much of his life. But he didn’t need to avoid them anymore. Sam was right here. And loved him. And more than Nico knew anything else, he knew this: it was mutual.
He straddled Sam’s waist and looked directly into those amazing deep brown eyes. “Okay.” Nico was tearing up, but he didn’t care. They were happy tears. “I love you, Samuel Jonas Solomon. Husband.” He put his hand over his own heart. “I love…” He moved his hand to cover Sam’s heart. “You.”
Sam grinned so big Nico couldn’t help but mirror it back.
“I love you too,” Sam said. “Though I believe it’s ‘ sexy husband.’”
“I love you, sexy husband,” Nico said, leaning in for a kiss that, between the two of them, told each other just how much.